1232 He gradually resumed his original frozen posture of head, but was not so tense. At 17 minutes elapsed time I returned with a mouse, finding his pose unchanged. The mouse was put on the ground 18 inches from his bill. He merely rolled his eyes slightly. The mouse began to prowl about then dug under the leaves, disappearing com- pletely from the sight of the bird. R watched the spot where the leaves stirred 3 feet away from him. The leaves ceased to move. At 24 minutes elapsed time Rhody stood up, stepped quietly over to the mouse's place of concealment, appeared to listen, then delivered one swift stab down into the litter, neatly withdrawing the squirming, squealing victim. A squeeze or two and it was limp. R now raised his crest and seemed to consider whether not he should begin his ritual. He saw the mirror 25 feet away, turned and ran toward it, hesitated, changed his course and gobbled his prey without ritual. Thereafter more sunning and loafing. The rest of the day was spent in sunning and preening mostly until time to start for his roost. July 26th. Rhody again was not seen here during the forenoon, but when he came in the afternoon, promptly accepted an invitation to follow to the shop. One loud, sonorous boo as he joined me no doubt was intended to make certain that his presence would not be overlooked. After this tactful reminder there was nothing to do but to hand him a mouse, which was gobbled without ceremony of any kind. The inevitable sunning and preening followed. Julio appeared at this juncture with a live lizard. Rhody merely wanted to play with it, picking it up several times without seeming to hurt it and putting it down again waiting for it to run, circling about it. I did not wait to see the final outcome. The curious habit of playing 'possum of these blue-bellied lizards and their absolute non-resistance when in the bird's bill have been commented upon in these notes previously. It almost looks as if the lizard did not object at all to being eaten. Another strange habit is that, when released in the presence of Rhody and before being touched by him, one can pick them up usual- ly without their trying to escape, whereas before being introduced to the Presence, they are extremely difficult to catch, except by stealth. July 27th. About 10 A.M. I went into the cage not seeing Rhody anywhere; but a confused blur, followed by a light thud at my feet, resolv- ed itself into Rhody sailing down from a perch somewhere in the inner compartment; his objective being the freshly trapped house- mouse which I was carrying by the tail. I should not have known that he was about if he had not made his presence known. No doubt there have been many times when he has been reported absent while actually on the job but out of sight. He had two more mice during the day. One very small. July 28th. to 31st., incl. During this four day period Rhody was not seen on two of the days at all (28 and 31). The other two days he was about as usual. On the 30th., for some reason or other, he spent a lot of time close to the house, and was so tractable that I took the opportu- ity of trying out a Graflex camera on him--a camera that I have not used before--using shutter speeds all the way from 1/100 sec.